Sookie Stackhouse series
Sookie Stackhouse series, also known as The Southern Vampire Mysteries or True Blood (TV shows title) is written by Charlaine Harris. Brief Series Description or Overview ✥ In this villageous, rather than urban, fantasy series, free-spirited, mind-reading Sookie is just a cocktail waitress in a small-town northern Louisiana bar until Vampire Bill sits down at one of her tables. From that point on, her life is changed forever. ~ Fangtastic ✥ Sookie Stackhouse first spilled out of her sundress twelve years ago, in 2001’s Dead Until Dark. In what was officially called the Southern Vampire series, Harris took Sookie’s story outside the urban area to an imaginary rural crossroads town called Bon Temps, Louisiana, near Shreveport. She also gave the whole paranormal world a sexied-up, homespun humor, even when the telepathic “Sookay” is running for her life. Which happens frequently. ~ Heroes and Heartbreakers Lead's Species Human Telepath Main Supe Vampires What Sets it Apart *An Urban Fantasy set in rural Lousiana, a cast of charming and wacky characters, a mystery at the heart of each book and s touch of romance. *The reader is scared and on the edge of their seat one minute, then laughing out loud the next. Narrative Style and Narrator First person narrative told by Sookie Stackhouse. Books in Series Sookie Stackhouse series: # Dead Until Dark (2001) # Living Dead in Dallas (2002) # Club Dead (2003) # Dead to the World (2004) # Dead as a Doornail (2005) # Definitely Dead (2006) # All Together Dead (2007) # From Dead to Worse (2008) # Dead and Gone (2009) # Dead in the Family (2010) # Dead Reckoning (2011) # Deadlocked (2012) # Dead Ever After (May 7, 2013) ~ final book Shorts and Anthologies Sookie Stackhouse short & Anthologies: *4.1. Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy: “Fairy Dust” (2006) *4.2. Night's Edge “Dancers in the Dark” (2004+9) *4.3. Many Bloody Returns: "Dracula Night" (2007) 5.1. Bite: “One Word Answer” (2004) *6.1. My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding: “Tacky” (2006) *7.1. Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy : “Lucky” (2008) *8.1. Wolfsbane and Mistletoe: “Gift Wrap” (2008) *9.1. Strange Brew: “Bacon” (2009) *9.2. Must Love Hellhounds: “The Britlingens Go to Hell” (2009) *9.3. Crimes by Moonlight: "Dahlia Underground" (2010) *10.1. Death's Excellent Vacation: “Two Blondes” (2010) *11.1. Home Improvement: Undead Edition: “If I Had A Hammer" (2011) *??.?. An Apple for the Creature: "Playing Possum" (2012) ~ Sookie *?. Down These Strange Streets : "Death by Dahlia" (2011) *?. Vampires: The Recent Undead : “Dahlia Underground” (2011) Companion Books or Guides *A Touch of Dead (2009) ~ Collection of Sookie shorts — Paperback: Nov 3, 2015 *The Sookie Stackhouse Companion (2011) Other Series by Author on this Site * Harper Connelly series * Midnight, Texas series World Building Fang-tastic Fiction: Charlaine Harris: SOOKIE STACKHOUSE MYSTERIES Setting Bon Temps, Louisiana Places: * Fangtasia: A vampire bar in Shreveport owned by the vampire sheriff Eric Northman * Supernatural Elements Telepaths, vampires, werewolves, witches, mullti-shapeshifter, faeries, fox shifter, tiger shifter, maenads, fae creatures, Britlingens, demons, elves, goblins, devils, vampire kings & queens, religious fanatics, cults, Glossary * TruBlood: Japanese synthetic blood drink for vampires * Mainstreaming: refers to vampires who wish to coexist with the humans and retain some of their human qualities. * Nest: refers to multiple vampires who live together. The nesters are described as having lost almost any trace of their human qualities and are more volatile and dangerous. * Fang-banger: men and women who hang around with vampires and enjoy being bitten * Glamor: hypnotic-like state that all vampires use Shapeshifter: Can take the form of any animal that the shifter saw last. The shifter can control his changes except for when there's a full moon. Groups & Organizations World ✥ Vampires have revealed themselves to the world because the Japanese invented synthetic blood, removing the need for humans as a food source. Shifters reveal themselves a few years later, but the faeries keep their true identities hidden from human view. The vampires follow the traditional rules: sun sensitivity, day sleep, and a preference for human blood. With the exception of a few rogues, all vampires are part of an intricate hierarchy that includes kings and queens at the top of the pecking order. The U.S. is divided into territories, each with its vampire ruler, and those territories are further divided into smaller regions, each run by a sheriff. The series maintains Sookie as the primary character, but each of her adventures focuses on a slightly different group of friends, family, and lovers as she battles serial killers, human religious fanatics, bad vamps, and many other evil supernatural beings. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries ✥ Weres and shapeshifters: can assume either human or animal forms, and are collectively referred to as the "two-natured". A variety of different types of weres and shapeshifters exist—including werewolves, werepanthers, weretigers, werefoxes, etc. Being bitten by a were can also transform a person unwillingly at full moons into a man/beast form closer to that of classic legend but a person must be bitten several times to accumulate growth. Shapeshifting conditions manifest in puberty.24 As Sam tells Sookie, shapeshifters can assume the form of any animal, but most often change to the same animal every time, usually a creature that they have a special affinity for and they call themselves by that animal, e.g., weredog or werebat ✥ Fairies "...are your basic supernatural being. From us come elves and brownies and angels and demons. Water sprites, green men, all the natural spirits... all some form of fairy." —Claudine Fairies are portrayed in the series as beautiful, with pointed ears and glossy, thin skin.28 Physically, fairies are super-humanly strong and durable. They are tough, ferocious, and incredibly long-lived, but not immortal. ✥ Wiccans and witches: a witch practices magic rituals, drawing from a power that most people never tap into possessing magical power that can be focused for many various effects through the use of rituals and spells.28 A Wiccan, on the other hand, practices a pagan religion that follows the ways of the Mother. Practitioners can be both Wiccan and a witch, or more one or the other. *More: The Southern Vampire Mysteries - Wikipedia Protagonist Sookie Stackhouse: free-spirited, mind-reading Sookie is just a cocktail waitress in a small-town northern Louisiana bar until Vampire Bill sits down at one of her tables. From that point on, her life is changed forever. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction * More: Sookie Stackhouse - Wikipedia Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE—Dead Until Dark (2001): Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome--and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life.... But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of--big surprise--murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next… ~ Goodreads | Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1) ✤ BOOK TWO—Living Dead in Dallas (2002): Sookie Stackhouse likes living in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and she likes working as a cocktail waitress at Merlotte's. But she is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it). The point is: the vampires saved her life. So when one of her bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges-and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly ~ Goodreads | Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse, #2) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK THREE—Club Dead (2003): Things between cocktail waitress Sookie and her vampire boyfriend Bill seem to be going excellently (apart from the small matter of him being undead) until he leaves town for a while. A long while. Bill's sinister boss Eric has an idea of where to find him, whisking her off to Jackson, Mississippi to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead. When she finally catches up with the errant vampire, he is in big trouble and caught in an act of serious betrayal. This raises serious doubts as to whether she should save him or start sharpening a few stakes of her own .. ~ Goodreads | Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK FOUR—Dead to the World (2004): Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. She has only a few close friends, because not everyone appreciates Sookie’s gift: she can read minds. That’s not exactly every man’s idea of date bait – unless they’re undead; vampires and the like can be tough to read. And that’s just the kind of guy Sookie’s been looking for. Maybe that’s why, when she comes across a naked vampire, she doesn’t just drive on by. He hasn’t got a clue who he is, but Sookie has: Eric looks just as scary and sexy – and dead – as ever. But now he has amnesia, he’s sweet, vulnerable, and in need of Sookie’s help – because whoever took his memory now wants his life. ~ Goodreads | Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, #4) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK FIVE—Dead as a Doornail (2005): Small-town cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has had more than her share of experience with the supernatural—but now it’s really hitting close to home. When Sookie sees her brother Jason’s eyes start to change, she knows he’s about to turn into a were-panther for the first time—a transformation he embraces more readily than most shapeshifters she knows. But her concern becomes cold fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population, and Jason’s new panther brethren suspect he may be the shooter. Now, Sookie has until the next full moon to find out who’s behind the attacks—unless the killer decides to find her first… ~ Goodreads | Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse, #5) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK SIX—Definitely Dead (2006): Since Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has so few living relatives, she hates to lose one - even her cousin Hadley, undead consort of the vampire Queen of Louisiana. Hadley's left everything she has to Sookie, but claiming that inheritance has a high risk factor. Some people don't want her looking too deeply into Hadley's past, or Hadley's possessions. And they're prepared to do anything in their power to stop her. Whoever it is, they're definitely dangerous - and Sookie's life is definitely on the line... ~ Goodreads | Definitely Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #6) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK SEVEN—All Together Dead (2007): Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full dealing with every sort of undead and paranormal creature imaginable. And after being betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Sookie must not only deal with a new man in her life—the shapeshifter Quinn—but also contend with the long-planned vampire summit. The summit is a tense situation. The vampire queen of Louisiana is in a precarious position, her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans. And there are some vamps who would like to finish what nature started. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she'll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe. And with HBO's launching of an all-new show, True Blood, based on the Southern Vampire novels, the demand for Charlaine Harris and Sookie Stackhouse is bigger than ever. ~ Goodreads | All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #7) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK EIGHT—From Dead to Worse (2008): After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the manmade explosion at the vampire summit, everyone human and otherwise is stressed, including Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is trying to cope with the fact that her boyfriend Quinn has gone missing. It's clear that things are changing whether the weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community is caught up in the changes. In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death, and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood finished flowing, her world will be forever altered. ~ Goodreads | From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse, #8) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK NINE—Dead and Gone (2009): The vamps have been out for years, and now the weres and shifters have decided to follow the lead of the undead and reveal their existence to the ordinary world. Sookie Stackhouse already knows about them, of course - her brother turns into a panther at the full moon, she's friend to the local were pack, and Sam, her boss at Merlotte's bar, is a shapeshifter. The great revelation goes well at first - then the horribly mutilated body of a were-panther is found in the parking lot of Merlotte's, and Sookie agrees to use her telepathic talent to track down the murderer. But there is a far greater danger than this killer threatening Bon Temps: a race of unhuman beings, older, more powerful, and far more secretive than the vampires or the werewolves, is preparing for war. And Sookie is an all-too-human pawn in their ages-old battle... ~ Goodreads | Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, #9) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK TEN—Dead in the Family (2010): It's all about family ... Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric's vampire sire, an ancient being who arrives with Eric's 'brother' in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie's tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton. In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour, and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War. ~ Goodreads | Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, #10) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK ELEVEN—Dead Reckoning (2011): With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows. ~ Goodreads | Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse, #11) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK TWELVE—Deadlocked (2012): Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on that there are things she'd rather not know. An now that she's an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she'd rather not see--like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one. There's a thing or two she'd like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet--Felipe de Castro, the vampire king of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It's the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric's front yard--especially the body of the woman whose blood he just drank. Now it's up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl's fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who's set out to make Sookie's world come crashing down. ~ Goodreads | Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse, #12) by Charlaine Harris ✤ BOOK THIRTEEN—Dead Ever After (2013): There are secrets in the town of Bon Temps, ones that threaten those closest to Sookie—and could destroy her heart... Sookie Stackhouse finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back at Merlotte’s. After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed. But her relationship with Eric Northman is not so clearcut. He and his vampires are keeping their distance…and a cold silence. And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated. Then a shocking murder rocks Bon Temps, and Sookie is arrested for the crime. But the evidence against Sookie is weak, and she makes bail. Investigating the killing, she’ll learn that what passes for truth in Bon Temps is only a convenient lie. What passes for justice is more spilled blood. And what passes for love is never enough ~ Goodreads | Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse, #13) by Charlaine Harris Category:Series